This invention relates to protective garments and in particular, to such garments as are used in hospitals such as sterile surgical gowns worn by surgeons and other operating room personnel to prevent contamination of the patient, surgical instruments, operating room equipment, and other personnel by contact with the clothes or body surfaces of the wearer. Additionally, such gowns serve to protect the wearer from undesired contact with blood, wound exudates, and similar fluids encountered during surgical procedures.
The gowns may be constructed of woven or nonwoven material and are generally manufactured and folded into a compact package and sterilized before sale using for example, steam or ethylene oxide sterilization techniques. Such gowns have a general structure directed toward two basic modes of donning: the panel closure method and the over-the-head method. Gowns constructed for the panel closure method comprise generally a sheet of gown material being divided longitudinally into a central panel and two side panels. The central panel may be donned by overlying the front of the user's body with the side panels covering and closing at the user's back and hence are termed "back closing" gowns. Alternatively, the central panel may be donned overlying the back of the user's body with the side panels covering and closing at the user's front and hence are termed "front closing" gowns. In either event, the gowns are provided with a neck opening and sleeves for accommodating the wearer's head and arms.
In the second mode of donning, the gown comprises essentially a longitudinal tube having a bottom opening, sleeve openings to which sleeves are affixed and a neck opening. Such gowns are intended for the over-the-head donning wherein the wearer inserts his head and arms through the bottom of the gown and then through the neck opening and sleeves, respectively.
Irrespective of the mode of donning, for reasons of asepsis as well as general convenience and practicality, several considerations must be accounted for in the design and use of such gowns. For example, in preparing for surgery, the surgeon first thoroughly scrubs his hands and arms for an extended period of time before he next puts on his sterile surgical gown. The surgeon must put on his gown aseptically, that is he must use a gowning procedure which will both insure that the sterile character of the gown or at least the sterile character of the surfaces thereof which will face the patient and the operating table, will be preserved and that the surgeon himself will not contact surfaces that are in fact contaminated or which are deemed to be contaminated.
The surgeon, for all practical purposes, is unable to completely and aseptically don such gowns without the assistance of another person and hence operating room procedures provide two classes of personnel available to provide such assistance. Members of the first of these classes are generally referred to as "non-sterile" persons. A non-sterile person is one who has not been through a standard scrubbing procedure prior to entering the operating theater and, accordingly, any surface contact by such non-sterile person is deemed contaminated. Typically, the circulating nurse in the operating room is non-sterile. Other personnel, that is to say the scrub nurse, the surgeons and their operating assistants, are "sterile" persons. A sterile person is one who has undergone a standard scrubbing procedure in preparation for the operation and who is suitably outfitted e.g. with gown, gloves, hood, feet, and face coverings to insure against subsequent contamination. Typically, it is the non-sterile person who assists the sterile people in donning their gowns and hence one criterion for the design and folding of such gowns is that consideration must be given to allow a non-sterile person to assist in the donning without contaminating those surfaces of the gown which must remain sterile; generally the outside surfaces.
In addition to consideration in connection with donning, still other factors are addressed in the design of a gown. It is, for example, important that the gown fits snugly about the wearers' body at such openings as the cuff openings of the sleeves and the neck opening (the lower portion of the operating room personnel below the table length is generally considered unsterile and hence the fit of the lower portions is less important). Accordingly in designing the cuffs of such gowns consideration must be taken of two, perhaps conflicting, criteria. Firstly, the cuffs must fit snugly around the wearer's wrists so as to avoid contamination and exposure of the body and, in particular, so as to remain in place under the cuff of gloves which are placed over the gown sleeve cuff. In conflict thereto, the cuffs must allow for easy donning without undue handling and concomitant risk of contamination of the outer surfaces of the gown.
Similarly, such criteria exist for the neck opening. Such neck opening should fit snugly about the lower portions of the hood of the wearer and hold such portions of the hood firmly in place. At the same time, the neck opening must allow for easy donning without undue handling and contamination risk.
Additionally, in considering the gown design, both from the point of view of commercial practicality and comfort for the user, provision must be made for varying the size of a given gown to accommodate the particular dimensions of the wearer. Moreover, it is important that the gown does not unduly blouse or billow in that this will interfer with the procedures to be performed by the wearer.
Heretofore, while attempts have been made, in part, to address each of these criteria, there has not been a satisfactory solution to these problems.